Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

A listener writes “Hi Wes, I am writing you today because I’ve never spoken about this to anyone who’s ever had an experience. And I’ve always been hesitant because I still can’t believe this happened to me. But listening to your podcast I’ve been able to find some answers and hear people who’ve also shared similar experiences. I’ll try to recall as many details as I can, as this was one of the most traumatic and frightening experiences of my life.

My incident happened in a National Forest in Texas in December of 2013. Myself, and two other girls were back home on winter break from college at the University of Texas in Austin. Every break, we’d go camping in this National Forest for a couple of days. The area, very primitive with no other humans for miles. Never once did we encounter another human or see one or hear one even in the distance on our way in and out. We also noted that one of the major trails there was closed due to “dangerous limbs.” This will come into play later on.

The other two girls with me grew up in neighborhoods in the same hometown where we all went to high school. I, on the other hand, grew up in the woods on the same plot of land with my father and grandparents. We grew, raised and hunted our own food. Coon hunting, squirrel hunting, deer hunting, hog hunting and fishing were just what we did. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I’d go in the woods with my dog and come back just before dark. My grandmother and father always told me, come back before dark. I recall watching the boggy creek with my father once and being so terrified because he told me the kid on the movie was him. It put a healthy scare into my cousin and I. But there was no other place on earth that I was more comfortable than in the woods. I know all of the sights, smells, sounds and critters in those woods.

Now, us girls arrive to our secluded camping area December 14th around 5:38 pm. The sun is going down, we get our tent pitched, gather wood, get a fire going. Coyotes start going off as soon as the sun is down. And something else it seemed was howling with them. I took notice to the sound I’d never heard before. We eat, drink some wine, and get to bed. I wake to about 2-3am to loud weird moaning howls. Just thought it was odd.

The next morning, we go hiking down a trail during the day. Laughing, being girls, taking pictures of the beautiful forest. We hang in our hammocks and read. Around 3-4pm we start gathering firewood. This is the golden hour where the sun starts shining through the trees and as I’m gathering wood, I notice something about 50 yards away. It looks like a head peaking from behind a tree, with the sun shining on what appears to be a reddish brown hair. I’m stupefied and ask the girls to come over, without taking my eyes off, and ask them what does that look like to them? Without even suggesting what I was seeing they both say, “it looks like someone peeking from behind a tree.” So I say, we’re gonna turn our heads and count to 5 and if it’s still there were gonna go check it out because it might be just a good log. It’s gone when we look back.

At this point, I’m feeling like things are off. By the time the sun goes down, we’re sitting around the fire. The night previously, we were laugbing, talking roasting weenies and comfortable. This night, we all sit down and no one is speaking a word. I then realize it is dead silent. I forgot to mention, our camp was set up in a sort of bowl, with my car off a ways but still not too far.

As we’re sitting in this dead silence, the coyotes start doing their thing. Then, we start to hear what sounds like branches breaking of something approaching us. Never in my day have I heard animal movements like this. So I think it must be a hunter. I call out “hey we got camp over here.” The movements stop. Then the real fear sets it, like you just know something is wrong. We are three girls without any weapons. Whatever is moving towards our camp can see us but we cant see it. You can feel the fear between us all. I ask one of the girls who has lived in the city her whole life and who was trying to dismiss it as a deer or hog, “do you want to shine that spotlight in that direction then?” And her answer was, no. Neither did I.

When we’re talking it’s moving, when we stop, it stops. At this point, we’re like lets get in the tent since we don’t have any weapons and maybe it will just go away. Big mistake. We’re sitting there in dead silence and fear, all senses heightened. We hear what sounds like a fast sweeping motion of leaves and brush, “swish swish swish.” All of us looking in each other’s eyes. Then from directly behind my friend’s head, right on the tent we hear this deep “OOG UHH” like the sound of a guttural caveman breathing in and grunting out. The look in my friend’s eyes I’ve never seen before in anyone, it was the look of we’re gonna die. All while this is happening, I’m clicking the alarm on my car and it finally sounds off. Then you hear the swish swish swish sound and breaking of branches and quick movements away from our camp. When we stop hearing it we get out of the tent, scoop it up along with the chairs, stomped out the fire and ran as fast as we could up this hill in the bowl. Stuff our stuff in the car and leave. This all happens between 8-9 pm.

I immediately call my grandpa and tell him what just happened and he goes “sounds like you guys got ran off by one of those bigfoots.” And proceeds to tell me some stories. I go online and search bigfoot and this particular national forest and a plethora of stories from around that time come up. Both from the BFRO website and the north American woodape conservancy. I can tell you more about this as well. But a few of the stories happened on that trail that we saw was closed.

Full of information and research and my new obsession, we went back in the Spring but with my male cousin. We had zero issues this trip but I did wake up and hear a strange howl in the middle of the night. When we hiked this time, I kept my eyes open. Snapped some pictures of what appear to be a shelter, tree structure and maybe even a print in the mud. There is NOBODY in these woods. We were so far in, not a sound or trace of humanity. I totally forgot about these photos until I went to find them today. And after listening to hundreds of your episodes, it gives me more perspective and so many more creeps. I’ll attach them below. I look forward to hearing from someone who has shared a similar experience, as I have yet to speak to anyone who also understands this strange story.

Thank you for everything you do and for providing a safe space for everyone to share.”